U.K. House-Price Gauge Shows Best Result in 19 Months, RICS Says

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- A U.K. house-price index rose to a
19-month high in February as first-time buyers moved to beat the
expiration of a property-tax exemption, according to the Royal
Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

The gauge based on a survey by London-based RICS increased
3 points from the previous month to minus 13, the strongest
reading since July 2010, it said in a statement today. Still,
with the measure below zero, that indicates more surveyors saw
price declines than gains last month.

The figures partly reflect Britons looking to take
advantage of a two-year stamp-duty exemption for first-time
buyers purchasing a home for less than 250,000 pounds ($390,800)
before it ends on March 24. While such “temporary factors” are
boosting activity, an improving economic outlook is bolstering
longer-term price expectations, despite tight lending
conditions, the group said.

“With the recent upturn in activity brought on by the end
of the stamp-duty holiday, it seems that a renewed sense of
optimism may be slowly returning to the property market,” RICS
housing spokesman Alan Collett said in a statement. “However,
with affordable mortgage finance still out of reach for many
potential first-time buyers, it remains to be seen whether the
more optimistic outlook for future sales can be sustained.”

RICS’s index of price expectations for the next three
months climbed to zero in February from minus 14 in January,
while a measure for expectations over the next year increased to
11 from minus 4, the first time it’s been above zero for almost
two years. A gauge of expected sales was unchanged at 20. RICS’s
index of new buyer enquiries, an indicator of demand, climbed to
3 from minus 7 and a measure of sales per surveyor rose to 16
from 15.7.

The group said the report indicated a “generally flat
picture” for the U.K. housing market, though London “continues
to stand out as being particularly buoyant.”

The capital recorded a price gauge of 53 in February, the
only area out of the 12 tracked by RICS to show a reading above
zero. The measures for the West Midlands and Northern Ireland
were the weakest, both posting a reading of minus 47.